[bitflipper]

Those of us who are amateur home recordists should always check our mixes on as many alternate playback devices as we have access to. iPod earbuds are valid references, especially if your target audience will be primarily listening on them.

That said, most professionals do not do this. They don't have to, because they have excellent speakers that they're intimately familiar with, and they work in acoustically-treated rooms.

The great danger is that you end up with a mix that's tailored specifically to those earbuds, and won't sound good on anything else. That great mix may not sound so good in your car, for instance.

Take your iPod to a hi-fi retailer and pretend you're shopping for some high-end headphones so they'll let you plug in their best models into your iPod. Listen to your mix on some $600 cans - your reaction may be "what? they charge that much for these headphones? They sound awful!". No, they don't. Your mix does.